Alicia's Bible Blog
Isaiah 1:11 "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats."
God has had enough of Judah's meaningless sacrifices, He wants His people's love and attention. Instead, they are "laden with iniquity", "utterly estranged" (Isaiah 1:4), and go about their sacrifices ritualistically with no meaning behind them. Many Catholics are doing similar. They go their own way, living by their own interpretation of God's law, or not thinking about it at all. They might go to Mass once in a while, or maybe even more often, yet they continue to live in their own world, not recognizing God for who He is and what He has done for us.
Unlike the sacrifices of Judah, however, the sacrifice of the Mass will always be welcomed by God, because it is the perfect sacrifice of His Son, no matter how those of us in the pews are approaching it. One of the things Jesus accomplished on our behalf was the offering of the eternal pure sacrifice. He told us to continue to do it in remembrance of Him for all of time, knowing the Mass would always make acceptable reparation to the Father for our sinfulness. (If we truly appreciated the Mass for what it is, we would never miss an opportunity to participate in it!)
So while often we attend Mass in a distracted or distant state, God never says "I've had enough of your sacrifices", because the sacrifice is not ours, it is His Son's. We can and should offer our own at the same time, but Jesus takes even our poorly done offerings and perfects them in Himself. He brings us before the Father, offering His own Body and Blood in reparation for our lack of attentiveness or outright sinfulness. The Father will always happily accept the Son's sacrifice, but it is up to us to accept it ourselves, to take full advantage of it's power to save us from our iniquity.
© 2021 mydaily.site